A 480 Ruger in a lever rifle would work all day long for the intended use, but there are a lot of other options it competes with.
Everyone has their own ideas of what works best for them and a lot of it comes down to preference versus ballistic metrics.
My solution for this intended use is the Savage 99 lever rifle re-barreled and modified to run the 450 Bushmaster Cartridge with 240 grain Bear Creek HV bullets doing 2550 FPS and having 3465 FT Lbs of Energy at the barrel. It shoots flat enough to make it a 250-yard gun and it is super accurate.
I had two of them made, one with a 20-inch barrel and one with a 16-inch barrel. The 16-incher does everything I need it to and it is fast to target and handy as hell in the brush and as a truck gun.
